


Burning Lotus: Blue Spirit Gambit

by WoozySloth



Series: The Burning Lotus [1]
Category: Avatar: The Last Airbender
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Avatar State, Book 1: Water (Avatar), Bows & Arrows, Dreambending, Episode: s01e13 The Blue Spirit, Fever Dreams, Fire Nation (Avatar), Foreshadowing, Gen, Hint of Blue Spirit/Yuyan Archers, Hurt, In Character, Out of Character, POV Aang (Avatar), POV Zuko (Avatar), Prison, Psychological Torture, Red Lotus (Avatar), Threats of Violence, evil!JeongJeong, hopefully, ish, morality swap for one character, yet - Freeform
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-28
Updated: 2020-07-31
Packaged: 2021-03-06 03:21:42
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 9,811
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25526608
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/WoozySloth/pseuds/WoozySloth
Summary: Aang would probably describe himself as 'in the clutches' of Admiral Jeong Jeong. The Admiral would probably say the world is in the clutches of the Avatar, and so in turn, Jeong Jeong holds the fate of the world in his hands. The Blue Spirit, if the Blue Spirit said anything, would probably say (loudly) that he has a headache.A darker-than-intended take on Admiral Jeong Jeong, loyal son of the Fire Nation, and his inspired capture of a deadly twelve year old boy.
Relationships: Aang & Jeong Jeong (Avatar), Aang & The Blue Spirit (Avatar), Jeong Jeong & Zuko (Avatar)
Series: The Burning Lotus [1]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1861912
Comments: 6
Kudos: 60





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> Bit of an experiment with switching the morality dial on one character who we didn't see a huge amount of, but was characterised by his hatred of a fundamental part of himself, which in canon lead to him being a conscientious objector who was also kind of a jerk, but here leads to him being a villainous jerk instead.

The Blue Spirit was silent. The Blue Spirit was swift. The Blue Spirit had found his way into Pohuai Stronghold, home of the illustrious and keen-eyed Yuyan Archers, with not a soul realising his presence. The Blue Spirit was as focused and razor sharp as the blades of the dual broadswords on his back. 

The Blue Spirit was definitely _not_ monologuing internally, thank you very much. He was just...keeping track of how the mission was proceeding. For discipline purposes. Besides, if he were doing such a thing, which he wasn't, it would only be natural. One had to be very quiet to break in _or_ out of a place like Pohuai, where any hint of a whisper that slightly disturbed the fall of a leaf on the other side of the base might result in a flurry of arrows in all sorts of uncomfortable and uncomfortably specific places. Best to keep everything bottled up inside, and then let it explode somewhere where there (hopefully) wouldn't be deadly reprisals. Fortunately, this was something the Blue Spirit had years of training in.

There was an explosion from inside the stronghold, which the Blue Spirit had a feeling was the Avatar failing to demonstrate this particular skill.

The Blue Spirit pointedly did not smack his mask in frustration, or sigh heavily, or set everything in his sight on fire.

* * *

Aang's last experience with being imprisoned by the Fire Nation had been a lot more comfortable. There had been less chains involved, for one thing. And he hadn't been suspended in the air, like a spiderfly caught in its own web. Or worrying about his friends. Well, he'd been worried, but they hadn't been deathly sick at the time.

Also. While he wouldn't exactly describe Zuko as 'polite', there had at least been some talking/shouting/threatening before he'd started in with the fire and hostage taking. Those archers, on the other hand, had introduced themselves via 'hail of arrows', which was just rude. Although maybe they just couldn't talk? Aang would feel a little bad, if that was the case. Perhaps they could have tried hand signs, he knew a few of those. Or charades?

It was for this reason that, when Admiral Jeong Jeong walked into the room, the first thing out of the mouth of the Avatar, host of the World Spirit, the Last Airbender, the One Hope Against the Imperialist Expansion of the Fire Nation, was this:

"Can your archers talk, or are they just being rude? Or am I being rude by asking if they can talk? And if they can talk, then why didn't they ask me to surrender first? Zuko asked me to surrender. Is Zuko the most polite person in the Fire Nation now?"

Jeong Jeong sipped his tea. It was clear from how it had been brewed that the former General Iroh had not visited Pohuai in some time, or there would be something approaching standards in place. That had been one of the less talked about benefits of having the Dragon of the West taking care of things on land - every base he visited would experience a notable uptick in the quality of the tea brewing. It made shore leave and cross-branch operations much more tolerable. And everyone had known how to play a little bit of Pai Sho as well. The Yuyan were a terrific fighting force out in the field, but their tile management was terrible.

The Avatar finished talking a long time before Jeong Jeong finished sipping.

"You talk too much."

The Admiral took another sip of his tea. There had been no inflection in his low, rumbling voice. Aang, who had expected something more along the lines of some fire being threateningly close to his face, had to admit that he was thrown. His last encounter with the Admiral had involved a lot more running and people firebending at him and being possessed by the (apparently very angry) spirit of his past life. Which, Sokka and Katara hadn't said, but it sounded like it had been pretty scary - maybe he could intimidate this guy into letting him go? Aang dug deep for his best Avatar Intimidation Skills.

"Well, uh, untie me and I'll talk with. My fists!"

Yeah. That would do it.

Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow, finished his tea, and handed it to one of the guards. He approached Aang's (seriously uncomfortable) bonds.

Had that actually worked? Aang was a pacifist, but maybe he should start intimidating people more often, if that had actually worked. Or were they going to fight now? Aang wasn't quite used to this business of threatening people with his Awesome Avatarly Presence, so what happened next was a bit of a mystery to him.

Although he was pretty sure he wanted it to be Jeong Jeong letting him go, rather than pulling a half-frozen frog out of his shirt.

Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow.

"Why is there a half-frozen frog in your shirt?"

* * *

_Why is there a half-frozen frog in this impenetrable fortress?_

The irony of referring to a fortress as 'impenetrable' after having... penetrated it, was not lost on the Blue Spirit. But it was a more impressive feat to infiltrate (*that* was a better word) places that were 'impenetrable'. Breaking into the colonial townhouses of uppity Fire Nation elites that condescendingly invited their banished prince over for an exhibition masquerading as a tea service that said Prince's honourable uncle 'just _couldn't_ resist' was...less impressive. A masked rogue had to make his own fun, sometimes.

...not that this was 'fun'. Sixteen-year-old princes did not have 'fun' while breaking into famous strongholds to secure their near-stolen destinies. Not even if the stronghold contained the Yuyan Archers, with their accuracy and silence and acrobatics. The Blue Spirit certainly didn't find any of those qualities enviable or particularly attractive.

"Why is there a half-frozen frog in this impenetrable fortress?"

The Blue Spirit flung a knife at the head of the guard who had spoken, striking his helmet hard enough to stun him - what followed was some truly excellent rope work, as if done by someone who had spent several years practising knots to immobilise powerful warriors, yet was also frustrated that this skill did not translate quite so well to preteen vegetarians (who were also masters of lost bending arts. The spirits hated Prince Zu...The Blue Spirit).

It was strange, the Blue Spirit thought to himself, that there was a guard wandering around without any sort of back-up.

This became less strange when the Blue Spirit turned a corner, and found that many of the other guards were unconscious. And also that there were probably other things to worry about.

There was a crash like thunder, about two floors up if he was hearing it right - and the Blue Spirit had excellent hearing. Excellent enough to hear the rattling of chains, like a cursed spirit out of a folk tale. The Blue Spirit eyed the long gashes along the walls, and wondered what exactly had provoked this rampage. He had rarely seen the Avatar display this kind of power and rage, but when it happened he could see the almighty spirit living in the bones of that infuriating child. In anyone else, such events would have grown a healthy fear of the little monk and his godly powers.

The Blue Spirit ran in the direction of the howling winds and screaming guardsmen. Because of course he did.

* * *

"I see. So the herbalist in Taku recommended this course of treatment?"

Aang nodded.

"Yeah! So, if you could maybe let me go, and get these to my friends, then I can go with you to the Fire Nation." It had worked with Zuko. Sort of.

"Mmm," Jeong Jeong rumbled, "and in exchange, what would I gain from this?"

"Um," Aang's chains rattled, reminding him that he had been negotiating with Zuko from a better position than the one he was currently in, "the...knowledge that you helped the sick and needy?"

It sounded weak, somehow, when he was saying it to the Admiral of a military force bent on world domination. But Jeong Jeong nodded sagely, and Aang felt hope blooming in his heart.

"Such a thing must have been valuable to your people, when they still lived."

Aang sagged in his chains.

"Yes, perhaps I will take this medicine to your friends," Jeong Jeong said, voice still unchanging, "tell me where they are, and I will do so."

That...didn't seem like such a good idea. He could practically hear Sokka and Katara telling him not to trust the Fire Nation Admiral who had sent creepy silent archers after him and then bound him in chains.

"Well, maybe if you just let me go instead..."

"Ah, yes. I will set you free, and you can return to your Water Tribe allies and your flying bison."

"And my lemur..."

"And your lemur. I can see how this makes sense to you, that I would release you from bondage so that you might make your way back to your only way away from this place."

"I just want my friends to get better!"

Jeong Jeong stroked his beard, considering.

"I will go to them."

"I won't tell you where they are."

"Do you not trust me, Avatar?"

Silence.

"A wise decision. Your friends are from the South Pole, yes? And if my information is correct, one of them is the very last Southern waterbender. Our Navy was supposed to have killed her but a few years ago. We sent a force many ships strong to raid her village and burn her out of the world, on the orders of Fire Lord Azulon. Are you perhaps worried we will finish the job?"

Aang shifted, his chains rattling in such a way that somehow managed to communicate _well I wasn't before, but now that you mention it..._

"Or the sky bison. You and it are the last airbenders. If anything were to happen to it -"

" **Don't touch them!"** Aang's voice came out in a gust of wind that toppled the guards at the Admiral's side, but Jeong Jeong himself stood firm. Neither his body nor his face moved in the slightest.

"No. You do not want me to harm your friends - but if you were truly that concerned, you would not have allowed yourself to be captured so easily."

"How is that my fault?"

"The same way, I imagine, it is your fault that you are a hundred years late to this conflict."

Jeong Jeong had long held a keen instinct for where to direct a strike. The Avatar's flinch was as clear as a hole in the enemy's hull.

"But no matter. The herbalist knows where they are."

"What?" The Avatar's face scrunched up. "No she doesn't."

"I am sure she will say the same thing, at first. But if fire is good for one thing, it is for revealing hidden truths."

* * *

The Blue Spirit moved among the guards of Pohuai as they panicked and ran, their feet moving almost as fast as their eyes, which darted every which way. But where they might have landed on the Blue Spirit, he was already gone, nothing more than a shadow, their minds playing tricks on them while a living force of nature turned their base inside out.

Or so they thought, until they got the butt of a sword to the back of the head. Or a large bucket of water to the head. Or the contents of said bucket thrown at their attempt to punch fire at the living shadow, the steam providing cover for the incoming blow to the head. The Blue Spirit was leaving a lot of concussions in his wake, tonight - between him and the Avatar, there were going to be a lot of very seriously dazed Fire Nation troops around the stronghold for a while. Speaking of the Avatar...

Pohuai as a whole rumbled, and the Blue Spirit heard rocks clattering on the floor above - the Avatar was moving up, for whatever reason. He had never had a solid grasp of how intelligent, exactly, this 'Avatar State' was compared to the airbender. It could perform bending of impossible strength and intricacy, but he had never heard it speak, or seen anyone reason with it. Every time he had witnessed it, the main idea seemed to be escape - but if it could blow through the walls, why go upwards and not out? The Blue Spirit wasn't going to be constrained by whatever strange rules the Avatar was playing by though. The Avatar wasn't constrained by walls, and neither was he. Besides.

Scaling the walls of this fortress was much more efficient than taking the stairs.

* * *

"But she doesn't know anything!" Aang had been yelling for a while - like proper firebending, airbending lent itself to some impressive lung power. "She's just a kooky old lady!"

Jeong Jeong did not yell. To Aang, it seemed as if the Admiral didn't feel anything, wasn't moved by anything. It wasn't that he seemed the inverse of his element, that he was like ice, but more like stone - Aang might as well have been shouting at a mountain.

"I do not believe you."

Aang wished he was shouting at a mountain.

"But it's true! She can't tell you where my friends are!"

"But you can?"

"I - I won't!"

"Because you think I will have one of my Yuyan put an arrow through their throats."

"NO!"

"No, you don't think that?"

Aang had never been ashamed to cry, as such. The monks, at least before all this Avatar stuff ruined everything, they had taught that such things were natural. If one felt like crying, then one should cry. But somehow, the Fire Nation was making it seem wrong. The people in this place made the tears gathering in his eyes feel dirty, feel like weakness.

"Don't hurt them..."

"So I will hurt this herbalist instead."

"No!"

"Then tell me where they are," Jeong Jeong said, in the same way he might suggest Aang solve a mathematical problem.

"I-I can't. They're sick."

"Death cures many ills."

"No!"

"Then I will torture the old lady."

There wasn't enough air in here. He was going to die in this room, chained up and surrounded by horrible, evil people and there wasn't enough air -

"Oh, do not worry - the Fire Lord will keep you alive. Barely. And perhaps he can be convinced to be yet more merciful towards your travelling party. You have seen evidence of the Fire Lord's mercy, after all. It is what he calls that scar he left on his son's face, sometimes."

He couldn't breathe. He needed air, needed freedom, he couldn't - 

"So long as they do not run away, they should be able to live quite comfortable lives in the Royal Menagerie, even that boomerang-wielding boy. It is unfortunate that the waterbender will have to die, but - "

There was an awful light in Jeong Jeong's eyes, a bright, burning thing that seemed to fill the room. Aang was not exactly in the right frame of mind to observe that the light was coming from _him_ , reflected in this awful man's gaze. A breeze, on its way to becoming a gale, whipped itself up from nothing. Ice crystals began to form on the walls and inside Aang - a cold certainty that this man was _evil_ , that that he had to be _stopped_ before he could hurt Aang's friends, could take away everything like he had before, like he'd taken away his home, burned it with his comet and burned the world and and and

Admiral Jeong Jeong looked up at the shining beacon of power that played at being a boy.

"There you are."

* * *

_There you are!_ The Blue Spirit didn't shout in a dizzying mix of relief, frustration and rage. A window the next story up had been blown into nothing more than a fine powder, the explosion of air clearly too powerful to allow anything more than a passing resemblance to glass. Naturally, he'd looked into where the window had once been, and found the Avatar.

And he meant _The Avatar._ Glowing eyes and tattoos and everything - clearly this had been a thing every since that explosion earlier, but he'd never seen the kid ( _enemy/quarry,_ insisted the Prince behind the mask, though it was a weak thing, all light and no heat) like this for so long. Or hunched over and panting, head turning side to side like an animal with a scent.

Oh.

The Avatar's head had whipped round in the same motion he whipped round the long chains dragging behind him, chains which struck against the wall as a blast of wind tore through the window the Blue Spirit had been looking through, powerful enough to have catapult him right back out of the fortress and into an exceedingly squishy fall - it was fortunate, then, that he was now clinging to a different section of wall, having leapt straight up in anticipation of Something Bad. This was mainly because Something Bad always happened, so it wasn't hard to anticipate. Still, if the little airbender had been more fully in control of himself, he might have appreciated the unassisted-by-bending display of acrobatics.

The Blue Spirit was busy appreciating the fact that he was alive, and also - though he would be loathe to tell the man responsible this - that he had had proper breath control nagged into him a thousand and one times. For not only did it translate well to stealth missions, it was keeping him calm in the face of the strange beast that the Avatar had become.

A familiar voice rang out from above.

"I'll be sending that messenger now, Avatar! A shame that I will have to find out where your friends are for myself!"

Admiral Jeong Jeong.

Of course.

A scream of wind and power and pain came from underneath him, and the Blue Spirit felt the whole building tremble yet again, which obviously he wasn't _worried_ by, precisely, because he hardly ever scaled a building that he didn't also expect to crumble into dust under his hands, even if it was coated in iron - because the universe hated him, so why wouldn't that happen? But Pohuai Stronghold was a fairly important transport and supply point for the war effort. Was Jeong Jeong really going to bait the Avatar into destroying it for some kind of mad scheme?

The Blue Spirit made a mental tally of everything he knew about the general behaviour of every high-ranking Fire Nation military officer he had ever met, and of what he had heard about Admiral Jeong Jeong in particular, for the Admiral was both a famed and 'unconventional' naval leader, and had been a favourite of Fire Lord Azulon (who the Blue Spirit also had some experience of).

The Blue Spirit decided to climb faster. That this was both towards the trap that Jeong Jeong was obviously setting, and alongside an enraged primal force wreaking untold havoc, would surprise absolutely no one who knew the person behind the mask.

Scale the wall. Jump. Handhold. Listen for the sounds of destruction. Scale. Jump. Handhold. Listen. Up and up they went, straight to the very top of Pohuai.

The Blue Spirit was about to situate himself on the parapet to see what was going on, but happened to spot the barrel. Scratch that, barrel _s._ He sniffed at the air. Nothing, but that just meant the barrels were properly sealed - he knew blasting jelly when he saw it. What was this crazy old man doing?

Said crazy old man burst out into the air, and immediately started firebending. 

There was a strong case to be made for the Blue Spirit having poor survival instincts, but they weren't totally non-existent: he let go of the edge and let himself fall. Catching himself on the window beneath, it was clear the Admiral hadn't seen him (nobody saw him, when he was like this. That was both the point, and part of the appeal.), or if he had, he hadn't cared, for he directed his fire towards four torches placed at each cardinal direction. The Blue Spirit could not see the watchtowers around the fortress, but had a sinking feeling he knew where the Yuyan Archers had been this whole time.

What happened next, happened fast.

Arrows sailed through the night.

A boy, heralded by an icy gale, a hurricane in human form, climbed to the top of a tall, tall tower.

The Admiral jumped.

The tower exploded in a ball of fire.

All of it so close together that the Blue Spirit would never truly be able to recall what precisely happened when. The Admiral was on fire as the explosion lent an extra bit of force to his leap. The Blue Spirit's eyes tracked his form as it fell, and fell oddly slowly. Jets of fire came from the Admiral's hands, drawing from the flames around him and directing him towards a wall and away from the ground. The light made it easier to see how this guided fall/almost-flight was going to propel Jeong Jeong into the wall, where a normal person would find themselves smacking into the hard surface before sliding down. In a move that would have served as a dispiriting display of incredible firebending prowess to...anyone who was sensitive about such things, Jeong Jeong simply grasped the wall without dispelling his flames, and melted handholds into it, looking up at the destruction he'd left behind him.

The Blue Spirit, too, looked up at the mass of flames where he had been hanging scant moments ago. Where the Avatar had been.

_Come on._

Had the Admiral actually done it?

_Come on._

If he'd killed the Avatar, then they would simply move to the next phase of the cycle - the Avatar was due to be reborn in the Southern Water Tribe. Grabbing the children from there would be child's play for the Navy.

_Come on._

Or if the cycle had to move to the isolationist North, for he could see no way that any babies would be born to the tribe he knew of any time soon, would there be a siege?

_Please._

Silence. The Blue Spirit clenched his handhold tighter - he should have moved by now, because an arrow in his back was looking more and more likely. But he had to know. He had to know if the Avatar lived.

_I need this. I need it._

Under the falling ash, Prince Zuko of the Fire Nation prayed to every spirit he knew.

_Live._

The fire blew out like a candle in a storm.

Wind buffeted him from all directions, threatening to hurl him from the tower - but under the mask, Zuko smiled.

The Blue Spirit, meanwhile, got himself back into the tower. Not for the first time tonight, he thought something that under normal circumstances he would have considered sacrilegious.

He had an Avatar to save.

* * *

Aang was...tired. He didn't think he had ever been this tired in his life. Sokka had once made a joke (he'd only made it once, because Aang's laugh had been a weak, sad thing) that Aang had a hundred years of sleep behind him, so of course he was full of energy all the time. Right now, he honestly felt like another century-long iceberg nap. He was also cold, had no idea how he had gotten all the way up here, or where 'here' was, or where the evil old man had gotten to or what said evil old man had done to him.

And then a scary spirit person with swords popped up in front of him.

Aang was about to let out a very dignified shriek of surprise, but the scary spirit person had a hand over his mouth, and raised a finger to his...to his mask's lips.

_Is that a Blue Spirit theatre mask?_

The Blue Spirit grabbed him, and they were gone.

* * *

From his new perch, Jeong Jeong considered his options. The resources of Pohuai were not inexhaustible. And if the Avatar had gone back inside, which would have been the smart thing to do, then most of the Yuyan would be at a considerable disadvantage in close quarters combat with an airbender - provided said airbender was not too exhausted to fight. All of the literature he had studied on the subject, and the Fire Sage he had picked up from their last encounter, maintained that the 'Avatar State' was physically, mentally, and spiritually draining.

Someone placed a ladder on the wall. Jeong Jeong shouted down at the soldiers below.

"Scout the building! Cover all the tower exits on ground level, but be prepared for an escape from above! Light more lanterns! And keep the Yuyan on the watchtowers!"

He climbed up, ready to put his own eyes to the task of spotting the Avatar, but the boy had already incapacitated a good chunk of Pohuai's forces during their little game of spider-cat and mousefly, and it seemed unlikely that the remaining incompetents would mobilise well enough to catch the last airbender. The Yuyan, out in the field and with the element of surprise, had done an admirable job, but there was too much open space in between the fortress walls - even their legendary skills would be hard-pressed. 

Colonel Shinu walked to greet him, his face carefully impassive, but his speech stymied by what Jeong Jeong would guess was searing rage mixed with horror.

"Admiral, the Stronghold - "

Jeong Jeong sent a spear of fire towards the tower, lighting it up. As far as he could see, there was nothing there.

"Hmm. So the Avatar yet lives. And moves."

He turned back to the Colonel, who had stopped talking at the display, but still betrayed no emotion at this interruption, or the further disrespect. A shame, Jeong Jeong thought, that Shinu had not been born a firebender, for too many lacked the self-control he was showing, or the discipline he could instil in his Archers.

Then again, Jeong Jeong had brought something of a wildfire into the man's house. He snorted out loud at his own hypocrisy, and Shinu's fists clenched harder.

"My men who have...regained consciousness. Some of them report a strange spirit walking the halls."

"Your men are very observant, Colonel. The Avatar is a very 'strange' case, in the world of spirits."

Was it possible to make a man combust without using any firebending?

"A figure in a theatre mask, wielding broadswords."

Jeong Jeong stroked his beard.

"Ah - like this figure climbing up the wall over there?"

He made sure to put an appropriate amount of disdain into his pointing? In all fairness to this new 'spirit', the Avatar's clothes were still mostly intact. And still very, very easy to spot.

* * *

Aang was exhausted, but he could still appreciate that his new theatre-enthusiast/ninja friend was really, _really_ good with those swords. Also, while he wasn't the biggest fan of these chains, they were actually kind of handy.

Airbending wrapped the length of metal around one soldiers foot, and Aang pulled, and one falling soldier became several. Why did using a chain as a weapon feel oddly familiar? Probably a past life thing.

A sword came in between Aang and a hurtling arrow.

Right. He should focus on running.

* * *

The Blue Spirit, if he were inclined to do such things, would have explained to any observing parties that there was absolutely _nothing_ comedic about the manoeuvre he and the Avatar were doing with the ladders. It was very much the most effective way to cross between the walls. It was, in fact, going to get them right out of the infamous, impenetrable Pohuai Stronghold, and on their way to safety and freedom. Well, just safety for one of them, if things worked out.

Which, of course, they wouldn't. Because of course what was going to happen was a rapid series of some ridiculously well-aimed arrows reducing their current ladder - which was _not_ making them look like some sort of stilt-walking circus act - to splinters underneath them.

They crashed and rolled - spears came hurtling at him, but then the Avatar was in front of him, and the chain on his arm was a windborne whip again, and if they could just get through this last gate and into the trees, they would be home free.

_Home._

So of course the gate was closed. And behind a wall of fire.

The Admiral walked up to them, arms and hands in a position that looked like no firebending move he knew - and was he the only maintaining this mass of controlled flames? How was _that_ fair? 

"Surrender."

A soldier lifted his spear.

"No, you fool!"

The spear came down. The Admiral...didn't want to kill him? No, that didn't make sense. He didn't want to kill the Avatar. The Blue Spirit looked back at the panting, weakened, _non-glowing_ airbender. Jeong Jeong...didn't want to kill the Avatar unless he was in the Avatar State. How did that - no, never mind.

The Blue Spirit made a decision.

* * *

Jeong Jeong was very good at looking unimpressed - years of training and working with people who thought 'big fire blast' equalled 'military prowess', among other things, had nurtured this skill.

He gave this interloper and his crossed swords a truly impressive effort. If this theatrical creature had wanted the Avatar dead, there had been ample opportunity.

The swords drew in, and the Avatar tried to make himself even smaller than he already was.

Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow, the challenge evident.

_Would you really do it?_

* * *

Would he really do it? 

A part of him wanted to huff smoke and fire and say _of course._ At least if the Avatar incarnated into the Water Tribe, he would have a _chance_ of catching that one, if he could escape afterwards. Escape the Yuyan and this master firebender, that is. But if he gave him up now, then there would be nothing. He'd be a failure _and_ a traitor.

The Admiral raised an eyebrow. Sweat and blood ran down one of his blades. The heat at his back - 

Disappeared.

"Open the gate."

He didn't sigh. He didn't relax, except maybe to let the Avatar breathe just that bit easier. He just backed up and up, achingly slowly, out of Pohuai. He was so close.

As they made their slow and uncomfortable journey down the road, Admiral Jeong Jeong gave a very specific order.

The Blue Spirit looked down as the Avatar gasped, ready to fight. But all he saw was a broken arrow shaft sticking through the monk's sleeve. Not really a thing worth gasping over, at this point.

_When did that get - Oh._

It wasn't broken.

_Oh._

His swords dropped from the Avatar's throat.

_Oh._

Then they dropped from his hands.

_Of course._

Then he dropped.

_Something Bad._

The Blue Spirit -

_Always happens._

Sighed.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The first half or so if this chapter is - if the giant cat doesn't tell you - a self-indulgent dream sequence/vision. If that's not your thing, or you're not feeling it, a ctrl+f for 'Jeong Jeong' will take you to a more grounded section. Even though there's less earthbending.

"Mrow."

Zuko opened his eyes.

There was a giant white cat staring down at him. Zuko decided he didn't want to deal with that, and shut his eyes right back up.

"Mrowww."

The cat sounded annoyed. Zuko opened his eyes again.

Alright. He was dreaming about a giant, white cat. And not a bearcat, batcat, wolfcat or crowcat. Just...a cat. That was bigger than a komodo rhino.

So that was weird.

"Oh Miyuki, we have someone in from the opera!"

Slowly, he sat up. From the voice, he expected to find an old lady, who was possibly also a giant, in the middle of what was apparently a swamp. Because why wouldn't that be the case?

Instead, there was a giant centipede-thing holding his Blue Spirit mask in one of its...legs? Pincers? Whatever they were, their function seemed to change as they reached what he presumed was the 'head' of thing, ringing around it rather than supporting it, enabling them to hold the mask in a delicate way that contrasted with its massive, brutish bug-body.

"Will he be alright?" 

The centipede lifted the upper segments of its body and turned round, letting him see that yes, it did have the face of an old lady. If he wasn't having a nightmare already, this would be good fodder for future ones. It would make a change, anyway.

Next to the old lady/centipede combo, there was an older man looking down at the mask with concern. The man seemed familiar in a way that Zuko couldn't quite put his finger on. He was dressed and styled like Fire Nation nobility - the headpiece he wore even seemed to indicate Royal blood, but still, his face provoked only a nagging sense that Zuko _should_ know him. And that concerned expression he wore, that open weakness - even Uncle Iroh was hardly ever so childishly readable. That was a fault in their family that Zuko usually had all to himself.

The centipede-thing patted this old man on his white topknot with one of her...appendages, which was wrong in any number of ways, and spoke kindly:

"Oh yes. Just a little arrow to the sternum. Miyuki's seen much worse."

"Mrow," the giant cat agreed.

"You know how these opera types can get."

"Okay," the old man sighed, sounding for all the world like a harried child, "I have to go get some frogs."

"What will I tell your little actor friend when he wakes up?"

That one seemed to stump the old man.

"Tell him...I wish we could be friends."

The old man looked straight at him, lifting a hand in goodbye, and there was a hole in one sleeve of his fine robes. As if someone had just _(shot an arrow, straight through the sleeve and into his)_ poked a knife through it, or something. Zuko could see the weak swamp sun poking through the hole, and then suddenly the little ray of light was magnified, and he was painfully reminded of his sister -

_Azula had begged to play with the 'pretty glass', and when she'd gotten bored with the bugs around the palace grounds, Zuko had woken up with a coin-sized red mark on his forehead that hadn't faded for a week. His sister didn't stop laughing that whole time. She'd been what, four?_

\- as the gentle, murky illumination became a beam of pain, drilling into the same spot - 

_\- the arrow wasn't broken, the head had disappeared into the Avatar's sleeve and then into Zuko_

\- that he'd been injured in, with all the ferocity of -

_\- an open hand, wreathed in flame_

\- a fire blast to the chest, and Zuko rolled out of the way, but the _cat_ was there, the cat was all over him. Blocking the deathly sun ray, which was nice, but also smothering him in white fur. Literally smothering him, his mouth filled with it, all he could see or feel was white, white, white. He tried to struggle free, but the cat rolled over, and he wondered if he had suddenly become a ball of yarn to this thing, because wouldn't that be perfect, wouldn't that just be the way - from chew toy of the Royal Family/the World/The Avatar to the chew toy of some bizarre non-hybrid giant spirit thing. 

He pushed and kicked and punched and pulled, because Zuko had never (hardly ever) quietly consented to being anyone's plaything, and he wasn't going to start now. The cat rolled over and over around on the ground, until suddenly Zuko was staring up at a stone ceiling with white fur in his mouth.

A familiar groan sounded from beneath him, and Zuko realised he was on top of the Avatar's sky bison.

"Ah-ha! Aw man. Appa, you're too much."

Zuko poked his head over the bison's flank. The Water Tribe peasants were deep in the bison's fur, encased in sleeping bags, and they looked absolutely terrible.

Then the boomerang one looked up at him and gasped.

"Flameo!"

Zuko looked back down at him, took a second to parse the positively _ancient_ slang word that had just been uttered, and offered his best response.

"What."

Sokka (*that* was his name...right?) rolled off of the bison, and when he popped back up, the sleeping bag had transformed into some kind of cape. Well, in all fairness, he could admit that it was a very nice cape. Very flowy and dramatic.

"Prince Flameo! I challenge you to a Dreambending Kai!"

Zuko had never really been that hot on the intricacies of interpersonal interaction, but he was pretty sure there was no Fire Lord-approved handbook for whatever this was.

"There's no such thing as a 'Dreambending Kai'. Or dreambending!"

"Oh, you _wish!_ "

And then the peasant started earthbending.

* * *

"Take that, you *rock*!"

As it turned out, the peasant was very good at earthbending. The first rock that came sailing at Zuko's head had forced him to roll off of the bison. Because he was unwilling to use the bison as a furry shield, because he wasn't a monster, that meant rolling towards the earthbender. His suspicion that this was not the best tactical move was confirmed by the pillar of earth that prevented him from reaching the ground.

"Oof!"

Or, well, had delayed him meeting the ground. Or sped it up, if you took the view that the earthbending that had launched him into the air was still using the same floor that he'd aimed to land on. If, of course, a bit less painfully.

Zuko rolled to his feet, and immediately had to dodge another rock. And another. This 'Sokka' character was more effective than he'd realised, using an unusual style that seemed to consist of randomly flailing his arms- 

"Augh! Ack!"

\- and coughing rocks at him. Zuko wasn't going to be deterred by this confusing new technique though. He dodged nimbly out of the way, punching a fire blast -

....punching a fire blast.

....

 _Punching_ a _fire_ blast - 

"Ha!" The peasant laughed, producing an unseemly amount of fluid from his face in the process. "There's no bending in the Spirit World, Prince Flameo! And no bathrooms, either!"

"Then what are you doing!" Zuko demanded, because why should this South Pole flotsam get to play by different rules?

"I went to the bathroom before we left!"

Sokka punched a hand into the stone floor, wiggling his arm around and making the whole room (courtyard? Was this some kind of abandoned temple?) shake. Zuko wanted to run up and, if he couldn't make it a flaming one, normal-punch this guy in the face, but the shifting tiles was making it difficult to do anything but desperately try to keep his balance.

"Ah-ha!" Sokka dragged his arm out of the floor, which settled into the state it had started in as an absolutely _massive_ stone boomerang came out of it.

Zuko looked at the big boomerang. Looked at the peasant, who was maybe a third of the size of the weapon he was brandishing.

Mentally ran through a checklist of every curse word he had heard while out at sea.

"Time for my special attack! Wah-ta!"

The gigantic boomerang came hurtling at him, and Zuko dropped flat to the floor and prayed. The weapon sailed over him, and Zuko considered his options. Stand up and maybe get a giant boomerang to his...everything? Or stay on the floor while a crazy earthbender from the Water Tribe was still in his general area?

Oh, scratch that.

The earthbender had leapt up into the air, and was hurtling down towards him with his knees positioned to crush his ribs.

Zuko rolled out of the way, and Sokka hit the floor with a mighty crash that sent the Prince flying even as it missed him.

Coughing, Zuko rolled further over so that he was behind a pillar, which would at least make him feel a little bit better about the Giant Boomerang of Death that was out there waiting for him to be out in the open. He couldn't see Sokka through the dust cloud, but he could see the waterbender curled up with the sky bison, who seemed okay. Which was good. He didn't particularly care about the waterbender, he told himself, but the sky bison hadn't asked to be the Avatar's vehicle of Prince-evading.

"Aww, I wanted to bury you in a rockalanche! Wait...have we gotten to that part yet?"

The dust clouds parted to reveal the very woozy Water Tribe figure just standing there in the open, practically begging to have a fireball punched in his direction. Zuko tried. It didn't work.

"Ha! Yeah, so how well you do without your bending! Woo, WATER TRI- "

The boomerang came back.

It hit Sokka, who screamed at entirely too high a pitch for Zuko's comfort, and kept on careening towards the bison, who finally lifted his head to blow it away, which sent it up into a corner, bouncing back down to the opposite corner, to the ceiling, off the floor, into _another_ corner - 

If history proceeded down roughly the same currents it wanted to, regardless of the little eddies that had already appeared in its currents, then many decades down the line people would be asking former Fire Lord Zuko where exactly he had gotten the idea for 'pachinko'.

What little he could recall, he would never tell them.

Eventually, one edge of the boomerang buried itself in the stone floor, trapping Sokka underneath it. The tribesman weakly raised a hand in Zuko's direction.

"You have...defeated me, Prince Flameo," he gasped, "the rest is up to...the Princess."

The Princess?

The waterbender crawled out of her sleeping bag, and took a stance.

Well, 'stance' was strong word. She was hunched over, head bowed, her arms hanging by her sides, and...

Was that a chain hanging from her wrist?

As the length of metal whipped out at him, Zuko concluded that yes, it was indeed a chain.

Why was that familiar?

The chain wrapped around his foot and he found himself flying through the air yet again.

"Ugh!"

It would be nice if he could stop himself from crying out - er, manfully grunting - in pain. For some reason, it was much harder without his mask.

"I thought you had changed!"

What?

Zuko felt the chain moving yet again, and decided that he really didn't want to keep getting smacked into the ground. He stabbed a link in the chain, breaking it with his sword.

His sword?

"Princess, look out! He's _dreambending!"_

His sword!

The chain snaked out again, and Zuko dodged, running at the waterbender(chainbender) at an angle. The improvised whip came out again, tearing up rock on its way, but Zuko sidestepped it and kept running. It came back, circling behind Katara to get momentum for another strike. Zuko grabbed his other sword from the hilt that was suddenly on his back, and leapt, ready to crash into her with the blades before the chain could reach him. The girl looked up at him, glaring at him with white, glowing eyes.

Zuko and the chain hung in the air.

And continued hanging. They were hanging there for a while. In fact, Zuko was pretty sure at least one of them should have come down by now. He looked up, and found that there was a furry pair of fingers pinching the back of his shirt, while another, similar set of fingers belonging to a different giant hand held the length of chain in the air.

Zuko followed the giant furry hand up the giant furry arm, and found himself looking up at Avatar's lemur, who Zuko remembered as being furry, but not quite so giant.

"Wow, kid. That old lady really gave you the good stuff, huh?"

Zuko also did not recall the lemur being able to talk.

"Or maybe it was something in that arrow? Or, like, a combination of things? Hey, do you think maybe the arrow hit something after all and you're, y'know."

Or quite so good at inducing existential crises.

"I'm not dead!" Zuko yelled.

"That's what they _want_ you to think!" Sokka offered from his spot under the boomerang.

"I'm not!"

The lemur shrugged, which meant Zuko bobbed in the air, which made him wonder whether he should be making with his sword skills right about now, because if he couldn't burn his way out of this nonsense, then slicing his way out was the next best thing.

"Mom's coming back with the frogs anyway."

"What?" Zuko couldn't make out what _that_ was supposed to mean.

"Ribbit."

Zuko looked behind him.

There was, of course, a giant frog, because he couldn't dream about normal-sized animals. It was covered in ice, but still moving somehow. There was a traditional Fire Nation topknot atop its head, and two scars trailing down from its left eye.

"Ribbit," it offered again, in a rumbling voice.

Then its tongue lashed out and stuck to the back of Zuko's shirt.

"Hey!"

The tongue went back into the frog's mouth, and Zuko came with it.

The last thing he saw was the lemur waving at him.

* * *

Jeong Jeong watched the Prince of the Fire Nation wake up, gasp, and then immediately combat roll out of his cot to crash face-first into the floor. Then the cat jumped onto his back.

Well, it was definitely Prince Zuko.

"Oh, dear," the herbalist came bustling in, tutting, "Miyuki, are you bullying this young man?"

"Mrow," the cat responded, which appeared to make the Prince tense up.

"Relax."

This did not work, but then it was widely reported that Zuko had not relaxed since his father had burned half his face off and sent him into exile. Strange, that. 

Really, the scar did a lot for the young man's glaring - if it hadn't been for that damaged tissue and that right eye, the boy would be about as intimidating as a plucked possum chicken.

"Mrow."

The cat on his back did not help matters. Jeong Jeong was rather used to the occasional unhybridized freaks of nature that the Earth Kingdom produced, and the practice of keeping them had recently spread to the Fire Nation, so Miyuki did not particularly disturb him.

Zuko turned his head to glare at the cat. The cat stared back, unimpressed. Zuko made a move to stand up, apparently thinking that Miyuki would take the cue to get off of him. This did not happen.

So it was that Admiral Jeong Jeong made conversation with the banished Prince while a cat clung to his back and the herbalist attempted to give everyone in the room some sort of dire medicinal 'tea'.

Jeong Jeong accepted the proffered brew while the Prince turned his glare on the woman - to no particular effect. Jeong Jeong was quite sure the herbalist's mind was half in the Spirit World.

"What happened?"

The Prince looked at him, ready to answer, and Jeong Jeong saw the exact moment the young man realised the situation he was in.

* * *

_Oh no._

Maybe he could go back to the weird dream with the centipede-ladies and earth boomerangs?

Zuko resisted the temptation to close his eyes. He was in Taku, his ship moored in a port that, while nearby, was not what you would call a 'reasonable' walking distance from here. He had been wounded and - he looked down - the wound he had received was both clearly on display and clearly in the exact same spot that the Blue Spirit had taken an arrow, which the person ordering the Yuyan around would clearly know about. Also, he imagined it was the most arrow-wound looking arrow wound that anyone had ever had, because why wouldn't it be? A traitorous part of Zuko was saying that while he might not ever be Fire Lord, he would forever be the king of Obvious Wounds and Their Obvious Causes.

Zuko looked back up at Jeong Jeong, who was still looking at him with with...complete apathy. There was no hint on his face that he knew that Zuko was the Blue Spirit, or that Zuko knew that the Admiral knew, or that they both knew the result of this information being disseminated would be imprisonment or death for Zuko. If it hadn't got out already. Zuko steadied his breathing. Jeong Jeong was either tormenting him or testing him. Every event in Zuko's life up till now said 'torment', but he would never get anywhere assuming he couldn't get out of this.

How to get out of this? He needed an alibi. Something to explain why he was miles from port, in a mostly abandoned herbalist institute, being treated for a very specific arrow wound and probably also for a very specific poison coating a specific type of arrow used by a very specific Fire Nation fighting force. He would need to channel his best Azula.

"I was attacked."

Jeong Jeong raised an eyebrow.

"By bandits."

Jeong Jeong sipped his tea.

"While I was out for a walk."

Brilliant. Foolproof. Truly, all his study of the theatre and his years navigating the intricacies of the Royal Court had finally paid off.

He was doomed.

Jeong Jeong simply nodded, as if Zuko hadn't just fed him a pile of ostrich horse droppings.

"Truly, these are dangerous times we live in, young Prince."

It was torment. Definitely torment. Not only was the Admiral an incredible firebender, he was also a master of psychological torture. Azula in an old man's body.

"May I have more tea?"

With some shades of Uncle added in, just to be disturbing.

"Oh, yes. How did you like your poison?"

Zuko reassessed the cups.

"Hmph. It wore off. Burned through in a handful of minutes."

"Oh, dear," the old woman replied, and Zuko shuddered at the sound of that voice, something crawling across his memory, "well, the Avatar is a tricky customer. Tried to take Miyuki's dinner you know!"

If Zuko hadn't immediately focused in on the old woman at the mention of the Avatar, he might have finally seen a flicker of emotion in the Admiral's face - an eye, twitching.

"The Avatar?"

"Mm. Impatient young man. Very keen on plum blossoms and frogs."

...he wasn't going to be getting anything useful out of this old woman, was he? He turned to the old man instead.

"Why did you try to poison the Avatar? You know he needs to be taken alive!"

Jeong Jeong took another sip of his tea, and Zuko felt himself tense, ready to smack it out of the old man's hands, when the cat licked his scar. A tingling, cooling sensation bloomed in his ear, and Zuko had control of himself again.

"Perhaps we should discuss this somewhere more private." The Admiral gestured at a doorway leading to another part of the institute, and Zuko saw a familiar set of boots peeking round the corner, dangling out of a cot. Carefully, he got up and walked over to get a better look.

Dozens of Fire Nation soldiers in varying states of consciousness were laid out in the next room.

Zuko ducked out of their sight, and found Jeong Jeong staring down at him.

"I will walk you back to your ship," it was not a question, "and protect you from further 'bandit attacks'."

Zuko had had a lot of bad days in his relatively short life.

So far, this one was shaping up to be quite the contender.

* * *

The sun had barely risen, which meant that every firebender on the ship would probably be up already, and the rest of the crew not far behind. It meant that Uncle and the Lieutenant, if they hadn't already noticed his absence, would start in on their _worrying_ soon. Zuko was _never_ late for morning drills. He was probably about to walk Jeong Jeong into a highly embarrassing 'Missing Prince' hunt when they finally got to port. Also, maybe a manhunt for the Blue Spirit? So that would be...awkward.

Almost as awkward as this dead silent procession down they were making down this winding path. Zuko, the most feared Admiral in the world, and the mutual knowledge that they had both been violating the Fire Lord's will in several ways last night. That was something, anyway. Zuko wasn't supposed to be rescuing the Avatar from Fire Nation strongholds, and Jeong Jeong wasn't supposed to be trying to poison the Avatar and blow him up (along with significant portions of said stronghold). So. It was a stalemate. This 'silent walking' thing was just a part of it all, psychological warfare. Jeong Jeong thought he was going to break, going to make the first move and give up any hope of an advantage.

"You poisoned the Avatar!"

...it was a tactical move.

"I did."

Jeong Jeong did not elaborate, and Zuko's next question came out with a hiss of steam, smoke and sheer frustration.

"Why?"

"Hmm. In your hunt for the Avatar, have you studied his past lives?"

"Of course." Zuko wasn't an idiot - he'd been preparing for a confrontation with the Avatar for years.

"What do you know of the so-called 'Avatar State'?"

Did the Admiral think he was an idiot? "It's what happens when the Avatar is in danger. They start glowing, and become more powerful."

"Yes, glowing and power are the main things to focus on." Why did Zuko get the feeling he was being mocked? "But something I learned from the Fire Sages was that this is a result of calling on their past lives. The Avatar, when in this state, embodies every Avatar that has ever lived. The Avatar Spirit is made manifest."

"Explain," Zuko gritted out.

"Does your Uncle do all your thinking for you as well, Prince Zuko?"

Zuko was _not_ going to set anything on fire. It wouldn't help anything. It wouldn't.

"Perhaps your injuries are distracting you. A shame we did not have a water healer on hand."

That...was a very strange thing to say, especially for someone who had personally driven those healers to wall themselves up behind layers of ice. And it was a distraction from the matter at hand - Zuko opened his mouth to demand they get back on topic.

"Did you know, for a long time, I wished to _be_ a waterbender?"

Zuko's mouth stayed open, but no words came out.

What?

He tried to think, to offer something, anything, any kind of rejoinder to that sort of open _blasphemy_ , but he was completely at a loss. To not wish to be a firebender was one thing - a rejection of the highest of blessings. But to - to - he could hardly countenance it, even within his own mind. A waterbender? He half-expected the Sun to smite Jeong Jeong then and there, for the Fire Lord to appear in a swirl of lighting and fury before them, for the dead dragons to rise from the earth beneath and swallow them both whole - Jeong Jeong for his disrespect, and Zuko for not killing the man where he stood as soon as he heard _that._

"Cool and soothing. The gentle push and pull, the ability to heal. Compared to fire, which wishes to break free and destroy...yes, I wished for waterbending."

"I..." What to say to this? This was beyond treason - they didn't even have laws for this, did they? 

"I even modelled my own personal style after it."

Jeong Jeong took a stance, and began to move his arms in circular motions. A wall of fire began to coalesce in front of them, and the firebender ended the motion with his arms stretched up to the sky, bringing the fire up as well. Jeong Jeong lowered his arms, and the fire settled a little, only for the Admiral to bring it up even higher on the next upswing of his outstretched limbs.

Zuko could see the resemblance to waterbending, see how Jeong Jeong was timing his breaths and the movement of his arms, see how he was making himself the 'moon' to his fire's 'water'. He could also see how the fire flowed around the trees without burning them, and suddenly he realised that through all of the chaos of last night - the Avatar, the explosions, the _being on fire_ \- Jeong Jeong did not have a single mark on him. He had only been at the herbalist's because...because he had known the Avatar would leave the Blue Spirit in the nearest place to heal.

If he hadn't already known Jeong Jeong was dangerous, it was becoming more evident with every moment he spent in the man's company.

The fire began to spread, enclosing them in a circle, and Zuko readied himself to fight, wounds and muscles aching at the anticipation.

Then Jeong Jeong banished the fire with another movement of his arms, and looked back at Zuko.

"To be free of this burning curse, I attempted to make it something it was not. But a dragon that lives in the sea is still a dragon. It was Fire Lord Azulon who cured me of my illusions."

"Grandfather?"

_"Grandfather?"_

_"Walk through the flames, child."_

"Yes," Jeong Jeong's voice banished the memory that had sprung up from the darkness, "your grandfather had a talent for illuminating the truth."

_"Look at them. This is who they are."_

"Yes. He did." 

_"The fire is nothing to you! Do not fear the fire, fear the moment when the fire is gone."_

They spent the rest of the walk in silence.

* * *

"Zuko!"

No 'Prince' Zuko or 'Nephew'. Uncle had been worried.

"General Iroh."

So worried, Zuko could almost believe he hadn't noticed Jeong Jeong's presence.

"Ah, Admiral Jeong Jeong. What a pleasant surprise."

"Indeed."

Zuko wasn't aware a space with this many firebenders could feel so cold.

"I'll be in my quarters."

"Of course, nephew. We can discuss this later."

Zuko grunted.

"Lieutenant Zhao will be relieved to know you are safe and well."

"Ah, how is my old pupil?"

"Very well. His health is much improved since coming aboard."

"Has his Pai Sho game improved at all?"

"Marginally. He still has not grasped the white lotus gambit."

"You still cling to the ancient ways?"

"It has won me many friends."

"I find the strategy quite stifling."

Zuko had better things to do than listen to two old men discussing gaming strategies. He stomped away from them and up onto the ship. If gangplanks could be slammed, he would have done so.

The crew leapt out of his way en route to his quarters - his face must have told them quite the story.

In his room, he pulled out his Avatar scrolls, a collection that even the finest scholars could not turn their noses up at.

_The Avatar State._

Zuko wasn't going to be beaten. If Admiral Jeong Jeong wanted to stand in his way as well, so be it.

What was one more master firebender to the list?

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Planting a few seeds for possible other stories here. Might be nice to have a 'series'. I didn't actually get to play with Zhao here as I'd hoped, but in the end I decided to save his interactions with Zuko in this AU for another time. And Azulon and Jeong Jeong's story as well - I keep forgetting JJ is not actually all that forthcoming a character, and having to pull back on his explanations of his motives and backstory. To him, they're just tools in his arsenal, so why deploy them all at once?

**Author's Note:**

> The idea that Zuko's previous experiences as the Blue Spirit consisted of robbing colonial governor-types who had condescended to him is from MuffinLance's 'Cheating at Pai Sho'. Credit for inspiration goes in the direction of all of MuffinLance's fics, which you should go read.
> 
> Other works I post in this might go back in the show timeline, rather than forwards. Because chronological storytelling is Not Really My Thing. Speaking of Unnecessary Capitalisation For Dramatic Effect, my devices are convinced I would never spell 'tower' or 'guard' without either being capitalised, because my original work is hacky as all get out.
> 
> If I write more stories in this, I'll collect them all up in some sort of format, and tag them as 'Burning Lotus AU', because Jeong Jeong being an evil so-and-so instead of a good so-and-so is really just the focal change


End file.
